Words on music, hoops, golf, travels, barbecue …

Pork

Can’t get enough of this band right now … I know there is bluegrass in their name (my soon-to-be-four-year-old grasped the play on words by herself immediately because she’s already smarter than me, which I understand is a low fence to climb but still considering my advanced age it won’t be long before she’s able to use her intelligence against me if she so chooses. So keep us in your thoughts. And I know every parent thinks their kid is smart and maybe everybody is right).

And yes, these fellas play the requisite bluegrass instruments – banjo, mandolin, big stand up bass, dobro-ish thingy – but the music crosses many genres, especially their selection of cover songs (When Doves Cry, Money for Nothing, Time, Could You be Loved, Wind Cries Mary, China Cat Sunflower, Atlantic City, etc). Paul Hoffman (the mandolin player) is a helluva songwriter with a fine voice and outstanding beard.

Also, the band hails from Michigan which is a beautiful place to hang out in the summer and ride a jet ski across their Great Lake with a tall, cold beverage in hand and a soft, warm body on your back.

The spirit is real.

Smoked pork shoulder is good. A man can write all the fancy pants sentences he wants. He can opine about basketball games and golf tournaments until he’s hoarse. He can walk a golf course in the hot sun with a bag of instruments on his back til his feet ache. He might make a putt on occasion. But those activities are silly distractions compared to a honest day’s work stoking fire and cooking meat to feed his family, small people some of them may be.